Hair Care

Caring for Your Hair Naturally

Even the healthiest hair can begin to take the strain of daily beauty regimes, environmental toxicity, and poor modern day eating habits. It is important to note that the living cells that promote hair growth are hidden in the hair follicles of the scalp, and that the hair we see (the hair shaft) consist mostly of non-living keratin proteins.

Simply put, the visible part of the hair is not living and therefore cannot repair itself once damaged. For this reason, it is essential to limit the use of damaging hair products and hair styling practices, while promoting healthy re-growth from the inside out with a healthy life-style and balanced diet.

What Is Hair Loss?

Hair grows everywhere on the human skin except on the palms of our hands and the soles of our feet, but many hairs are so fine they're virtually invisible. Hair is made up of a protein called keratin that is produced in hair follicles in the outer layer of skin. As follicles produce new hair cells, old cells are being pushed out through the surface of the skin at the rate of about six inches a year. The hair you can see is actually a string of dead keratin cells. The average adult head has about 100,000 to 150,000 hairs and loses up to 100 of them a day; so finding a few stray hairs on your hairbrush is not necessarily cause for alarm.

At any one time, about 90% of the hair on a person's scalp is growing. Each follicle has its own life cycle that can be influenced by age, disease, and a wide variety of other factors. This life cycle is divided into three phases:

Anagen -- active hair growth that lasts between two to six years.

Catagen -- transitional hair growth that lasts two to three weeks.

Telogen -- resting phase that lasts about two to three months. At the end of the resting phase the hair is shed and a new hair replaces it and the growing cycle starts again.

As people age, their rate of hair growth slows.

While there are numerous shampoos and conditioners that claim to repair and promote healthy hair, it is ultimately a healthy supply of nutrient-rich blood to the scalp and hair follicles that promotes healthy hair growth and the prevention of hair loss.

Herbal and Homeopathic Remedies related to hair care

There are a number of herbal and homeopathic ingredients that can help promote healthy hair growth and maintenance. These include herbal ingredients such as Ginkgo biloba, Rosmarinus officinale, andXanthoxylum clavaherculis, all of which act as circulatory stimulants which promote the flow of nutrient rich blood to the scalp and hair follicles.

Another herbal ingredient commonly used for healthy hair is Equisetum arvense which is rich in minerals and assists in the healthy growth of all connective tissue, including hair and nails.